Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LECHLADE

LECHLADE, a small town and a parish in the district of Faringdon and county of Gloucester. The town stands on the river Thames, and on the Thames and Severn canal, at the boundary with Berks, and near the lower part of the river Leach at the boundary with Oxford, a short distance W of the railway northward from the Great Western to Chipping-Norton, and 5½ miles NW by N of Faringdon; has been supposed, from the discovery of a hypocaust and tesselated pavements in a meadow near it, to occupy the site of a Roman station; had a black priory from the time of Henry III. till that of Edward IV.; enjoyed, till recently, important traffic on the Thames; consists chiefly of two long wide streets, crossing at right angles; and has a post office‡ under Swindon, a good inn, a handsome bridge, a church, Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels, a national school, and charities £109. The church is of the time of Henry VII.; had once a chantry; and comprises nave and chancel, with tower and spire. A small market is held on Friday; and a fair, on 9 Sept. Coxeter, the antiquary, was a native.—The parish includes St. John's Bridge, Lemhill, Thornhill, ManorFarm, and Butler's Court. Acres, 3, 542. Real property, £8, 016. Pop., 1, 328. Houses, 295. The manor belonged, at Domesday, to Henry de Ferrars; passed to the Mortimers, Richard Earl of Cornwall, the Talbots, the Despencers, Queen Catherine of Arragon, and others; went afterwards to the Wheates; and belongs now to G. Milward, Esq. The manor house stands at the E end of the town, and is a plain building of the early part of the 16th century. Clayhill House is the seat of G. A. Robbins, Esq. There is a mineral spring. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £710. * Patron, Emmanuel College, Cambridge.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Lechlade CP/AP       Gloucestershire AncC
Place: Lechlade

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